Warcraft III Patch & Ladder Details
As announced last week, we will be reactivating the Westfall gateway (Beta Patch Server) tomorrow (Wednesday, 6/23/04) afternoon to give people an opportunity to play and examine the changes we've been making to the XP system. The changes to the new ladder include the following:

Improvements in Battle.net's ability to determine a player's true skill rating and ELL (expected ladder level).
Separate player skill ratings for Solo, Team, and FFA play. A great solo player is not necessarily the best team player.
The number of games required for a player to reach the ladder level that corresponds to their ELL (expected ladder level) will differ based upon (1) game type and (2) the associated difficulty of finding games of that type on Battle.net. For instance, a random team player will have to play approximately 300 games, whereas a solo player will have to play approximately 200 games. An arranged 4v4 team player, on the other hand, will only have to play around 40. After playing a sufficient number of games, the player of average skill should be level 25 in that game type's corresponding ladder.
The player skill requirement for reaching the very highest ladder levels will be increased. Fewer people will be able to reach level 50, but obtaining that level will also be more prestigious.
The experience gained or lost by a player when a game finishes will be more directly influenced by the player's skill. Highly skilled players will now be able to reach higher ladder levels more quickly. Players who intentionally lose games in an effort to lower their ELL and find easier opponents will also find it much more difficult to climb the ladder.
The experience gained or lost from one game will also be limited by new minimum and maximum experience values. These values differ based on the game type played.
Players that already had accounts on Westfall will be able to use those accounts once again; however, records will be reset. Furthermore, the Westfall gateway, the beta patch, and the ladder test will be available to any and all language versions of the game. Once Westfall is available, an announcement will be made on Battle.net, and players will see Westfall as a valid gateway choice from the Gateway Selection screen.

After approximately a week of testing, we will update the public gateways to the resulting new version. This update will happen prior to July 1st, and the beginning of July will mark the start of the new Blizzard Warcraft III ladder season. Ladder seasons will run for each quarter of the year. The first ladder season will run from July 1st through September 30th. At the end of the quarter (September 30th), the top qualified players from each Gateway's Solo & Arranged Team 2v2 ladder will qualify to compete in a special tournament for prestige and potential prizes. Other top ladder players will be recognized as well. Further details will be available during the upcoming ladder season.

In order to even the playing field before official ladder play begins, we will conduct a one-time ladder reset at 12:01 AM (UTC) on July 1st. Players will retain their race wins and, therefore, the icons and portraits they have earned. However, ladder-based win/loss records and XP/level will be reset. After the July 1st ladder season starts, we do NOT plan to reset the ladder with the start of each season, but we reserve the right to do so.

In addition to the ladder changes, we will be including a few game balance changes. The changes will either coincide with or become available shortly after Westfall is reactivated. The Frozen Throne balance changes will include the following:

Undead
- Destroyer negative mana regeneration increased to -6/sec from -3/sec.
- Mana gain of Devour Magic increased to 150 per dispelled unit from 75 per
dispelled unit.
- Orb of Annihilation mana cost increased to 50 from 25.
- Orb of Annihilation had a splash damage that was dealing full damage to
all targets instead of full damage to the primary target, and reduced
damage to nearby targets. This discrepancy has been fixed and the orb
now deals damage identical to the functionality in patch 1.14.